Today’s post delves further on Tuesday’s post, Get healthy to lose weight or lose weight to get healthy?

Lately, I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about an over-consumption of calories to bring the body back into (or maintain) homeostasis/a high metabolic rate. The concept is rather overly-simple: eat… a lot… pretty much over-eating… focusing on carbohydrates as a larger portion of the calories because cells use sugar (specifically, glucose) as their main source of energy… and by doing that on a daily basis with consistency it can provide the body with the right energy environment to eventually produce the right living environment. Simple, yah?

An energy environment requires a Production/Production Capability Balance (thanks, Covey). Ability, efficiency, timing, execution, and consistency all play a role in the P/PC Balance. I know that I sound like a warehouse management course because that’s the point – it’s good to sometimes think of your body as a machine (or mechanism) that can very well break-down one not-so-distant day (or perhaps it already shows signs of dis-ease or is dis-eased) if you don’t provide it with the necessary fuels and tools (environment, energy) to get the job done time and time and time and time and time and time and time again (and not just a few times until it craps out on you). Production deals with the end result – the product, the end, a working body, a healthy body. Production Capability deals with the ability/platform to consistently produce desired results - the process, the means, fuel, maintenance, diet, hydration, sleep, etc.

So, Food Shape is like whipping your metabolic rate into working condition by putting it through a diet training camp. The idea is that a high metabolic rate, as a result from proper nutrition (energy environment), can translate into a highly-efficient living environment due to its ability to produce the right product at the right time with consistency. When I was in high school, my soccer team had 3 weeks of training camp to prepare us for the upcoming season. The goal of this camp was to a) weed out the scrappers, b) take those who were out-of-shape from zero to hero in a short time frame, c) develop a higher production capability environment through ability, efficiency, timing, execution and consistency, and d) set the standard for fitness, stamina, endurance and skill level (product) for the season-to-come. Take that training approach, transpose it to food/diet and you have the basics for getting into food shape.

Now, the questions are… Does this shit work? Doesn’t over-eating make you fat? How long do you over-eat? I thought carbohydrates make you fat? I thought sugar is bad for you? Are you mental?

It’s a perspective, an approach, and a pretty intuitive idea in my book. To me, it makes sense because of a two pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good reasons (and don’t worry, I’m a guinea pig so I’ll let ya know how it goes as time… goes).

• Energy = Calories. The body needs energy to produce energy. Insufficient energy supplies (aka not eating enough calories on a daily basis just for the body’s pre-programed activities – breathing, moving, digesting, regulating body temp, eliminating, hormone producing, etc.) will cause the body to down-regulate and poorly operate. What happens to a battery-powered music-making toy if its batteries are on their last leg? It moves and makes music but it’s slow-moving and the music sounds like a Talk Boy.. but it still “works.” So, the body NEEDS energy to produce energy and in a consistent energy-deficient state, the metabolic rate will slow down and normal bodily functions no longer run at optimal speeds. Consistently put a set of new, premium batteries into your toy and it runs like new… like it should. Increased calories + increased carbohydrates = Increased metabolic rate. 
• The body is made up of cells. Since the body is a system of systems and things can get complicated very easily due to cause and effect, think of the body on a cellular level and what helps or hinders cell health. Every single cell in the body primarily uses Glucose (SUGAR) for fuel and energy-production. Yes, cells not only use energy but they produce energy as well (muy importante!) When a cell is deprived of its go-to fuel, it must find other ways to become energized – this can be done by converting dietary or tissue-stored fats and proteins into sugars. This process actually uses 3x as much energy as cells use when running on Glucose, which means its a very inefficient and wasteful means of energy. Inefficient fuel causes the body to switch to survival mode, stress hormones are continuously released to make up for the lack of energy and inefficient energy conversion, and normal bodily functions (once again) are down-regulated and poorly operate due to the survival state. Give the body energy/calories/carbohydrates – give the body what it needs to survive, perform, run, and work normally.

Maybe I am mental, but I think it’s something to truly consider. Carbohydrates are certainly not the major epidemic that our modern medical society has made them out to be. In my book, they’re a major factor that can bring us out of daily dis-ease and chronic illness. However, the carbohydrate source, portion, timing, and the rest of the diet/lifestyle all play a factor, as well.

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